The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: an Evaluation

For a corporate, there are many factors can influence it. Such as teamwork, leadership and trust of a leader. Acme Minerals Extraction Company in order to solve the problem which is morale and productivity. Suzanne Howard hired Donald Peterson to implement in the first plant. The outcome was good because Donald Peterson was the employee of the company. People in the company trusted him and respected him. With the assistant of Donald Peterson, the process went well. However, in the second plant, the Suzanne Howard's team not only did not have the person like Donald Peterson to assistant them but also under a massive pressure from the top management. The only option the have was force the employee to take a part in their operation. There is no surprise that the Suzanne Howard's team would fail on the second plant. Teamwork, leadership are the essential factors for a company, they can sustain the life a corporate.

The reasons of the problem:

The team project succeeded in the first plant but is not working in the sister plant, the main problem is lack of a leader. There are several reasons to support it. Top executives make a mistake to believe the lessons learn should make implementing the program. Secondary, they felt under immense pressure from top management to get the team-based productivity project running smoothly that less costly and time consuming. Moreover, the manager do not make promise for employees. Although a few of the SPITS teams solved important problems, none of them showed the kind of commitment and enthusiasm.

The solution of the problem:

Employing a person who can be trusted by the employees is the best measure . The leader should better be the college of the employees. In addition, the ability of the leader should better know the situation of the company. Dirk suggests that higher levels of perceived vulnerability may increase the impact of trust in leadership on team performance. (Kurt T. Dirk). They can know each...

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...Background of FrederickW. TaylorFrederickWTaylor was an American inventor and engineer, considered the father of "scientific management". Although born to a wealthy family, Taylor began his work life when he signed on as an apprentice at a small Philadelphia pump works. Four years later, at a plant in Midvale, he developed the basic elements of what later came to be known as "scientific management" - the breakdown of work tasks into constituent elements, the timing of each element based on repeated stopwatch studies, the fixing of piece rate compensation based on those studies, the standardization of work tasks on detailed instruction cards and generally the systematic consolidation of the shop floor's brain work in a "planning department."
His influential theory enabled industry to move away from "rule of thumb" management and be more efficient and prosperous. The modern systems of manufacturing and management would not be the examples of efficiency that they are today, without his work. FrederickTaylor was instrumental in bringing industry out of the dark ages by beginning to revolutionize the way work was approached. Taylor was able to increase wages, productivity and reduce per piece costs at the same time. His work was eventually adopted in a wide array of applications. Taylor's ideas had a significant...

...How has FrederickTaylor influenced the practice of management today?
FrederickTaylor (1856-1915) was a steel worker who looked for ways to improve industrial efficiency.
Taylor believed that it was the manager’s duty to understand workers and their jobs. He wanted to come up with a way to ensure that workers complete their tasks with maximum production and minimum costs (Madeheim, Mazze, Stein 1963). In order to achieve that he came up with a concept known as scientific management to try and improve industrial efficiency.
Scientific management included four major steps. The first step was aimed to eliminate the “rule of thumb” method adopted by employees and replace it with specific ways to complete a task. The second step was to scientifically choose employees and train them in their specific area rather than them teaching themselves and having their own ways of doing the task. The third step was to ensure that the workers are following the scientific methods when doing their work. Finally continue to apply scientific principles when planning work, while workers actually perform the tasks. (Stewart, 2004)
Taylor’s scientific management seemed logical however it did have some flaws. As much as it was logical it was very restricted. Taylor didn’t leave any room for thought for his employees there was only the “one best way” to perform a task and no other, there was no room for being...

...managers owe Frederick Winslow Taylor a debt for having laid much of the foundation of their profession. Taylor's work is responsible for workplace phenomena such as reengineering and total quality management. Further, what Deming and Juran carried to Japan after World War II, was in great part so warmly received there because Taylorism was already well ensconced. Although born to a wealthy family, Taylor began his work life when he signed on as an apprentice at a small Philadelphia pump works. Four years later, at a plant in Midvale, he developed the basic elements of what later came to be known as "scientific management" -- the breakdown of work tasks into constituent elements, the timing of each element based on repeated stopwatch studies, the fixing of piece rate compensation based on those studies, the standardization of work tasks on detailed instruction cards, and generally, the systematic consolidation of the shop floor's brain work in a "planning department."
Taylor's initial experiments were aimed at determining (scientifically, of course), how much work a "first-class man" could perform. It was Taylor's goal to collect raw data about the jobs in the workplace, and then to systematize that knowledge; to replace old habits and rules of thumb with precise and usually quantitative analysis. He was convinced that scientific study would reveal a better way -- the one best way -- of doing things. No task was too mundane for...

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To start with, McDonalds’s apply the...

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The positions are organized in a vertical, pyramid-shaped hierarchy.
Decision-makers at all levels are to make decisions rationally based solely on the policies and procedures of the organization and the available facts. Personal relationships play no role.
All actions, decisions, and rules are constructed and recorded formally.
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The Mental Revolution – a “humane” revolution
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...﻿ Tracing Taylor`s scientific management
'Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) was the first efficiency expert, the original time-and-motion man. To organised labour, he was a soulless slave driver, out to destroy the workingman`s health and rob him of his manhood. To the bosses, he was an eccentric and a radical, raising the wages of common labourers by a third, paying college boys to click stopwatches. To him and his friends, he was a misunderstood visionary possessor of the one best way that, under the banner of science, would confer prosperity on worker and boss alike, abolishing the ancient class hatreds.' (Kanigel,1997) So, why is this man essential when talking about work, organisation and society? The answer is quite simple: Taylor is the father of scientific management, the creator of a system that became known, inevitably enough, as Taylorism. This system has transformed the subculture of the manual working class in the nineteenth century, leaving its signature in the history of labour.(McMillan et al.,2007)
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...Scientific management is defined by (Robbins et al., 2012) as ‘an approach that involves using scientific methods to define the “one best way” for a job to be done’. FrederickW. Taylor is said to be the forefather of scientific management, during his time many people criticised Taylor and his work, however it is easy to see that many of his approaches are used in contemporary management systems. This essay will provide a review of the article ‘The Ideas of FrederickW. Taylor’, Academy of Management Review (Locke, E., 1982) which discusses the positives and negatives of Taylor’s theory. A further 3 articles will be analysed on the critiquing or support of scientific management and Taylor.
There have been limited academics that have been argued against, as much as FrederickW. Taylor, his approach to management was that a scientific methodology was introduced into the business. Locke talks of Taylor in his journal article in support of his work, and examines the techniques put forward by Taylor as outside his time; Locke doesn’t criticise or strongly support Taylor however he does state that many of Taylor’s major criticisms are unfounded. Drucker wrote that “Taylor was the first man in history who actually studied work seriously” (1976, p.26)....

...Influence Of FrederickTaylor-------------------------------------------------
Life And Influence Of Frederick TaylorJoin AllFreePapers.com
Category: BusinessAutor: jonirol 19 March 2012Words: 752 | Pages: 4The Life and Influence of Frederick TaylorFrederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915), founder of scientific management, was born in Philadelphia. He came from a Quakers family with rigid principles and he was educated with a disciplinary mentality, devotion to work and savings. During his first studies, he had direct contact with social and business problems that arise since the industrial revolution. He started his professional life as a common laborer in 1878 at the Midvale Steel Co., he started as a shop clerk and quickly progressed to machinist, foreman, maintenance foreman, and chief draftsman; he became chief engineer in 1885. At the time, the pay per piece or per task system was used. Taylor introduced then the piece-work in the factory. His goal was to find the most efficient way to perform specific tasks. He closely watched how work was done and would then measure the quantity produced (Kanigel 44).Taylor believed that the secret of productivity was finding the right challenge for each person, and then paying him well for increased output. At Midvale, he used time studies to set daily production quotas; incentives would be paid to those reaching their daily goal....